Watts Gallery

The Watts Gallery, built in 1904, is the largest in Britain to feature the work of a single artist and was recently restored by the architectural practice ZMMA. The aim of Charles Marsden-Smedley’s lighting scheme was to make the lighting as discreet as possible, ‘to illuminate Watts's works of art – painting and sculpture – to their best advantage, focusing light on the works of art and allowing the walls to remain relatively dark.’ It includes 104 Evo 16 lockable spotlights with 6mm honeycomb louvres, plus another 54 Evo 16s with snoots designed to eliminate glare. They are mounted on 130 metres of three-circuit Eutrac housed in specially designed troughs, and custom finished to match the newly painted ceilings.

An Evo 16 with a Framing Projector attachment was also used for the Sower of the Systems, a remarkable symbolist painting regarded as having changed the course of modern art in Britain. The Framing Projector focuses and lifts the light level on the canvas, without over-illuminating the painting’s gilt frame.

Testimonial

"The lighting has been a crucial element to the redevelopment of the gallery, not just because of the wonderful atmosphere it creates, but primarily because of the way it illuminates the paintings, which has been a revelation to many."Mark Bills, Curator